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Latest Research and Reviews

HDL-cholesterol levels in plasma predict the risk of cardiovascular disease, but a direct causal role for HDL in cardiovascular disease remains controversial. In this Review, Rosenson et al. discuss the opportunities afforded by an integrated approach that combines human genetic studies with systems biology to understand the complex metabolism of HDL and its potential atheroprotective properties.

It is believed that mutations in desmosomal adhesion complex protein plakophilin 2 (PKP2) cause arrhythmia due to loss of cell-cell communication. Here the authors show that PKP2 controls the expression of proteins involved in calcium cycling in adult mouse hearts, and that lack of PKP2 can cause arrhythmia in a structurally normal heart.

Heart rate variability (HRV) describes the individual variation in cardiac cycle duration and is a measure of vagal control of heart rate. Here, the authors identify seventeen single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with HRV, lending new insight into the vagal regulation of heart rhythm.

Several macromolecular structures coexist in the intercalated discs, which connect cardiomyocytes and control cell-to-cell communication. In this Perspectives article, Moncayo-Arlandi and Brugada suggest that the structures of the intercalated disc form an interactive 'connexome'. They also propose a link between arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy and Brugada syndrome on the basis of overlapping genetic, molecular, and pathophysiological mechanisms.